Exploratory Study of the Privacy Extension for System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA-Priv) to elicit Privacy Risks in eHealth

Context: System Theoretic Process Analysis for Privacy (STPA-Priv) is a novel privacy risk elicitation method using a top down approach. It has not gotten very much attention but may offer a convenient structured approach and generation of additional artifacts compared to other methods. Aim: The aim of this exploratory study is to find out what benefits the privacy risk elicitation method STPA-Priv has and to explain how the method can be used. Method: Therefore we apply STPA-Priv to a real world health scenario that involves a smart glucose measurement device used by children. Different kinds of data from the smart device including location data should be shared with the parents, physicians, and urban planners. This makes it a sociotechnical system that offers adequate and complex privacy risks to be found. Results: We find out that STPA-Priv is a structured method for privacy analysis and finds complex privacy risks. The method is supported by a tool called XSTAMPP which makes the analysis and its results more profound. Additionally, we learn that an iterative application of the steps might be necessary to find more privacy risks when more information about the system is available later. Conclusions: STPA-Priv helps to identify complex privacy risks that are derived from sociotechnical interactions in a system. It also outputs privacy constraints that are to be enforced by the system to ensure privacy.Comment: author's post-prin

Economic impacts of EU clean air policies assessed in a CGE framework

This paper assesses the macroeconomic and sectoral impacts of the “Clean Air Policy Package” proposed by the European Commission in December 2013. The analysis incorporates both the expenditures necessary to implement the policy by 2030 and the resulting positive feedback effects on human health and crop production. A decomposition analysis identifies the important drivers of the macroeconomic impacts. We show that while expenditure on pollution abatement is a cost for the abating sectors, it also generates an increased demand for the sectors that produce the goods required for pollution abatement. Moreover, we find that positive feedback effects, particularly those related to health can offset the resource costs associated to the clean air policy and result in positive macroeconomic impacts for the economy of the European Union

Conformations of confined biopolymers

Nanoscale and microscale confinement of biopolymers naturally occurs in cells and has been recently achieved in artificial structures designed for nanotechnological applications. Here, we present an extensive theoretical investigation of the conformations and shape of a biopolymer with varying stiffness confined to a narrow channel. Combining scaling arguments, analytical calculations, and Monte Carlo simulations, we identify various scaling regimes where master curves quantify the functional dependence of the polymer conformations on the chain stiffness and strength of confinement.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, minor correction

Klinische Entwicklung von Kardiomyopathie-Patienten/-innen, die an der Universitätskardiologie Jena mittels Endomyokardbiopsien untersucht wurden

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die retrospektive Analyse der Echokardiographie-Befunde von Patienten, die am Universitätsklinikum Jena untersucht wurden. Im Rahmen der Arbeitsgruppe Herzinsuffizienz wurde eine Datenbank mit 499 Patienten etabliert, die über einen Zeitraum von 2004 bis 2016 einer Herzkatheteruntersuchung mit Endomyokardbiopsie zugeführt wurden. Die Ergebnisse des gesamten Patientenkollektivs zeigten zu Beginn des Beobachtungszeitraumes für die linksventrikulären Echokardiographie-Parameter eine signifikante Verbesserung. Dieser Effekt setzte sich im Verlauf zwar nicht fort, lässt aber dennoch in Zusammenschau mit der hierzu verfügbaren Literatur auf eine Prognosebesserung und somit suffiziente Therapie schließen. Die rechtsventrikuläre Evaluation erfolgt seltener, so auch in diesem Fall. Für eine statistische Beurteilung des RVEDD und der TAPSE waren demnach nicht ausreichend erhobene Werte vorliegend. Sowohl RVEDD als auch TAPSE eignen sich jedoch zur Risikoabschätzung für Rechtsherzversagen nach LVAD-Implantation, die TAPSE kann unabhängig der linksventrikulären Funktion also Prognoseparameter eingesetzt werden. Die linksventrikulären Echokardiographie-Parameter korrelierten untereinander stark und können somit zur Einschätzung der Verlaufsentwicklung herangezogen werden. Gegenteilig verhielten sich die rechtsventrikulären Parameter, die deutlich geringer untereinander korrelierten. Veränderungen der Parameter des linken und rechten Herzens waren weitgehend voneinander unabhängig. Bezogen auf die Diagnosen DCM und Amyloidose waren die typischen echokardiographischen Befunde erkennbar, in denen sie sich folglich auch statistisch signifikant unterschieden. In der DCM-Gruppe war die LVEF signifikant eingeschränkt und der linksventrikuläre Diameter vergrößert. Die Amyloidose-Gruppe zeigte sich mit einer geringer eingeschränkten Pumpfunktion und normwertigen linksventrikulärem Diameter

Whole Gene Capture Analysis of 15 CRC Susceptibility Genes in Suspected Lynch Syndrome Patients

Background and Aims Lynch Syndrome (LS) is caused by pathogenic germline variants in one of the mismatch repair (MMR) genes. However, up to 60% of MMR-deficient colorectal cancer cases are categorized as suspected Lynch Syndrome (sLS) because no pathogenic MMR germline variant can be identified, which leads to difficulties in clinical management. We therefore analyzed the genomic regions of 15 CRC susceptibility genes in leukocyte DNA of 34 unrelated sLS patients and 11 patients with MLH1 hypermethylated tumors with a clear family history. Methods Using targeted next-generation sequencing, we analyzed the entire non-repetitive genomic sequence, including intronic and regulatory sequences, of 15 CRC susceptibility genes. In addition, tumor DNA from 28 sLS patients was analyzed for somatic MMR variants. Results Of 1979 germline variants found in the leukocyte DNA of 34 sLS patients, one was a pathogenic variant (MLH1 c.1667+1delG). Leukocyte DNA of 11 patients with MLH1 hypermethylated tumors was negative for pathogenic germline variants in the tested CRC susceptibility genes and for germline MLH1 hypermethylation. Somatic DNA analysis of 28 sLS tumors identified eight (29%) cases with two pathogenic somatic variants, one with a VUS predicted to pathogenic and LOH, and nine cases (32%) with one pathogenic somatic variant (n = 8) or one VUS predicted to be pathogenic (n = 1). Conclusions This is the first study in sLS patients to include the entire genomic sequence of CRC susceptibility genes. An underlying somatic or germline MMR gene defect was identified in ten of 34 sLS patients (29%). In the remaining sLS patients, the underlying genetic defect explaining the MMRdeficiency in their tumors might be found outside the genomic regions harboring the MMR and other known CRC susceptibility genes